


Letters Home

by codenamecynic



Series: Little Things to Save Your Life [5]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Homesickness, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-02 01:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21152978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codenamecynic/pseuds/codenamecynic
Summary: Harper never has been very good at writing letters.





	Letters Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bettydice (BettyKnight)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BettyKnight/gifts), [Fionavar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionavar/gifts), [Dakoyone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dakoyone/gifts), [vhaerauning](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vhaerauning/gifts).

> Set sometime near the very beginning of our game, when the party spent time in Waterdeep.
> 
> For anyone not my party members who happens to stumble across this fic, our game takes place in a bastardized Faerun that exists between editions, and this story references characters from other posted fics. Briefly:
> 
> Katy/Ceitidh: Wild mage sorceress and Harper's best friend/semi-adopted daughter with a flair for terrible goth fashion and large explosions. ([The Rules](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1496267))

The letter is burning a hole in his pocket. 

It’s been in there all day; long enough to be faintly damp, bent out of shape with the heat of his body, its crisply folded edges faintly crumpled. It’s unlikely to be the worst thing it would see on its long journey to Arrabar, but moodily he thinks it’s too on the nose, too reflective of himself - a bundle of lies smoothed over with nice packaging, worried away until the patina starts to crack.

Fuck. 

He crushes the letter in his hand. That doesn’t help anything.

“What are you doing?”

Harper blinks and turns to look at Katy when she slips around one side of him to see what he’s got a chokehold on this time, the diminutive sorceress raising one eyebrow dyed as black as her hair.

“I’m just… having a moment.”

“Another one?”

“Thanks for that.”

Katy rolls her eyes at him and smiles like he’s just being ridiculous, and - well, he is. He is ridiculous. It makes him feel foolish, or would if that was something he ever stopped feeling. He isn’t certain he can even be embarrassed anymore, too used to being consistently and measurelessly stupid.

“What are you doing?” she asks again, peering down at the wrinkled missive, and he just shrugs, rubs the back of one hand across his forehead.

“Nothing. Just thinking about whether or not to send this.”

“Is it a love letter?” It’s not fair that she looks so hopeful. In fact it’s hurtful, but that’s not fair either - she doesn’t know.

He laughs, short and humorless. “No.”

“Oh. Well that’s less interesting then.”

“I know.”

“Well is it something baaaaad?” The way she draws out the syllable makes it sound like bleating and - honestly it’s annoyingly cute. And it gives him exactly the opening he’s looking for, a teasing grin curving his mouth as he slips an arm around her shoulders, the letter making its way back, unnoticed, into his pocket.

He could tell her. He just… isn’t going to.

“Just some business, my little goat.”

Katy wrinkles her nose. “Harper.”

_“Ma petite chèvre.”_

“Better.”

“It means the same thing.”

Katy rolls her eyes again, like he’s just too old and out of touch to get it. “Everything sounds better in Elven.”

Harper laughs at that, letter not forgotten but neatly folded away, out of sight and for the moment out of mind. “Clearly you need to teach me more phrases. Something out of one of your books, a really good one.”

Katy lights up at the challenge, linking her arm through his. “Well!”

Who knows how long a letter would take to make its way from Waterdeep to Arrabar, if it would make it there at all. His sister, and the rest of his erstwhile secrets, can wait another day.

**Author's Note:**

> Please pardon our use of French as Elven, we don't know how to play D&D and we make poor life choices.


End file.
